Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies
Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies (ドラゴンボール 神龍の伝説, Doragon Bōru: Shenron no Densetsu; lit. "Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenlong") is the first Dragon Ball movie, originally released in Japan on December 20, 1986, between episodes 43 and 44, with it premiering at the 1986 Toei Cartoon Festival (along with movies from the GeGeGe no Kitarō and Kinnikuman series). In its original theatrical run, it was just titled Dragon Ball, but for subsequent video release in Japan it was renamed. In specific, this movie is a heavily modified retelling of the gathering of the Dragon Balls in the Emperor Pilaf Saga, but with King Gurumes taking Emperor Pilaf's role as the center villain. Like that initial saga, it depicts how Goku meets up with Bulma, Yamcha, Oolong, Puar, and Master Roshi, as well as the first quest for the Dragon Balls (these events would be retold again in the 10th Anniversary Movie, Dragon Ball: The Path to Power). Summary Evil has spread throughout the land starting with a kingdom and its ruler, Gurumes. The king's men are scavenging for what lies beneath the land, Blood Rubies, but one girl stands up to the king and his men. Her name is Penny. She shoots her slingshot at one of the king's stormtrooper's. The stormtrooper retaliates, but Penny's father steps in. The trooper backs off and crushes a rock revealing a Blood Ruby. Penny's father tells the trooper his opinion on the excavation because it's destroying the crops and the kingdom. The trooper likes his courage, and attacks him with a fist to the face, knocking the man out. The trooper leaves in a jeep to go back to the palace. Penny decides to teach them a lesson and leaves the kingdom in search of help. At the king's palace, the king is eating and throwing food everywhere, and criticizing his men. The king is an ugly beast, and what caused this was the Blood Rubies. The Blood Rubies make him hunger for more food, and more treasures. One of his soldiers, Raven, enters his palace telling him she located another Dragon Ball. The king wants it which means he would then have five Dragon Balls, but there is a couple fortune hunters who are also after the balls too. The king doesn't care of this, he just wants the ball, and he'd pay anything for them, and tells Raven he'll pay in Blood Rubies. Far away from the kingdom lives a boy named Goku, who owns the Dragon Ball. He thinks the ball is his grandfathers and prays to it. The boy then goes to go catch a fish for lunch. A Giant Fish almost eats him, but in the end, the boy is the victor. On the road nearby, a girl named Bulma is also after the magic balls. She spots the king's men in an airplane and tries to beat them to the ball. The boy spots the ship also and sees that it is landing near his house. The car and the girl in it collide into the boy and his fish. The boy thinks it is a monster who wants to steal his fish. The boy attacks the car and smashes the window. The girl gets out and tells him she is a human. The boy stops, and doesn't believe her because of the way she looks. She explains to him she is a girl. The boy never saw any other humans besides his grandfather, and doesn't know what a girl is. The boy spots a Dragon Ball in her pouch and thinks she stole his grandfather. The girl finds out where the other ball is, the kid has it. The two of them start to run up to the boy's house to stop the king's men. The king's men steal the Four-Star Dragon Ball from Goku's house and go back to their airplane. Goku and Bulma run to the boy's house to stop the intruders. They reach the house only finding a gold coin where the Dragon Ball use to be. The king's men take off in their ship from behind the house. The girl uses a capsule and an airship comes out. The two get into the ship and introduce themselves. The boy is Goku, the girl is Bulma. They take off and go after the ship. Raven gets into the gun turret and starts to fire at the ship. Bulma counters with their gun and hits the enemies wing. Raven brings out a Rocket Launcher and blows Bulma's ship out of the sky. Bulma and Goku fall. Goku throws his Power Pole and saves save Bulma from landing in the water. Bulma and Goku continues to search for the Dragon Balls. On the way Goku and Bulma find Penny who is being stalked by a monster who can transform. Goku steps in and defends Penny. The monster thinks Goku is weak and wants him to prove his strength, so he tells Goku to break a tree in half. Goku does very easily, and the monster chickens out, turns into a bat, and flies away. Goku follows the monster and they end up in a desert. The monster is actually a pig in his true form, named Oolong. Oolong is very scared of the area because of the Desert Bandit Yamcha. Yamcha is there and shoots his Machine gun at their feet. Yamcha has a flying companion named Puar, who is a shapeshifting cat, that went to school with Oolong. Oolong asks Goku to beat Yamcha. Goku agrees and draws out his staff. Yamcha pulls out his sword and the two go into battle. Goku blocks all of the swings Yamcha makes, and then makes his move and hits Yamcha in the stomach with his extending pole. Yamcha uses the power of the Wolf Fang Fist on Goku, hitting him into a wall. Bulma arrives and Yamcha runs, revealing his shyness. Yamcha falls off of a cliff and hits head first in the ground, breaking his tooth. He runs away saying "I'll never get a date!!!" Bulma likes Yamcha and wants to find him. In a capsule motorhome, Penny reveals to Goku and the others about her looking for Master Roshi, the Turtle Hermit. All of them decide to head south to find the old master. Penny reveals to them the past of her kingdom and the Blood Rubies. Yamcha hears from the outside and decides to find Master Roshi first. They reach the little island where Master Roshi is. The master thinks they want to steal his shell. Penny tells him that they need him to help her kingdom. Master Roshi yells to Yamcha, who was there before the others, and tells Yamcha that he lied to him. Bulma gets close to Yamcha and he blushes. Yamcha runs behind the house. Master Roshi calls for Flying Nimbus, a magic cloud and gives it to Goku. Only one with a pure heart can ride it. Yamcha takes off on a boat. Bulma spots Master Roshi's Dragon Ball. Master Roshi lets her have it. The king's men are in a sub and launch pick-pocket rockets to get the Dragon Balls. It gets one of the balls. The king's men decide to blow up the island and then get the last ball. Master Roshi powers up and shoots a Kamehameha and destroys the sub and all the missiles. The king's men escape in a jet. Goku tries out the attack Master Roshi did and succeeds in blowing up a rock. Master Roshi doesn't go with Penny, but tells her Goku is a strong enough fighter. The Dragon Ball Gang head towards Gurumes' castle to get the Dragon Balls. The king's army is waiting for them. They start to fire at their airship. Goku gets on his cloud and attacks the commander, Bongo, while Bulma tries to get the balls. Goku destroys the disk the commander is on, and Goku goes into the castle. Yamcha joins the battle and gets inside the castle as well. Yamcha grabs a bunch of Blood Rubies and runs. Yamcha runs into Bulma and the others. Raven finds them and shoots Yamcha. Yamcha hits Raven and finds out that Raven is a girl. Raven throws bombs down the corridor. Yamcha saves Bulma and the others from the bombs. Bulma and the gang get inside the king's room, where Goku meets up with them. The king gets up and mutates to a big monster. Goku challenges the king and blasts him in the stomach with a Kamehameha. The king's stomach begins to glow. Bulma realizes the balls are in his stomach, and throws the last ball into his mouth. Shenron, the dragon, emerges destroying the castle. The Dragon tells someone to make a wish. Penny wishes for the land to be peaceful and beautiful. The Dragon removes all the Blood Rubies from the soil and restores the land. The Dragon disappears and the balls split up in seven directions. The king and everything in the land is back to normal. Bulma and Yamcha get together. Penny gives the king an apple, and the king likes it, and wants to keep all the trees and flowers of the kingdom. Goku gives Raven her coin back, calls for Flying Nimbus, and flies off into the sky. Timeline placement The events of the movie take place in place the Emperor Pilaf Saga of Dragon Ball. They happen in an alternate world according to Daizenshuu 6. Dub edits Scene removals The first version of Curse of the Blood Rubies produced, the original Japanese release, featured a surprising amount of content which was removed upon the film's release in North America. Although FUNimation Entertainment released it alongside the first thirteen episodes of the anime on an uncut DVD set in Australia and New Zealand, the film included in this set is not the original version but the 1995 dub from its premier North American release. FUNimation eventually released an uncensored version in late 2010. The earliest notable edit occurs early in the film, where Goku first encounters Bulma after being accidentally struck by Bulma's motorcycle. In the original version of the film, Goku responds by charging at Bulma, who panics and shoots Goku three times in the head with a handgun, and is astonished to find Goku completely unharmed. In the Harmony Gold and BLT Productions dubs, this scene was entirely cut, making it appear that Goku's initial response is to charge at Bulma and thrust his Power Pole at the motorcycle, severely damaging it. In 2010 however, this scene was brought back in the FUNimation dub of the movie. Scenes in the BLT Productions dubbed version which take place at Bulma's Capsule House were recycled from Dragon Ball and did not appear in the original release. During Goku's fight with Yamcha, scenes in the original version that closely depict Goku's face being pummeled by Yamcha's Wolf Fang Fist were removed entirely, making the technique appear as though it were no more than a kick (as in the Japanese version, Yamcha closes the move by kicking Goku into a stone structure). Goku retaliates by performing a jan-ken-pon technique, meeting fists with Goku (rock), using his other hand to poke Yamcha's eyes, temporarily blinding him (scissors), then smacking him in the face (paper) hard enough to send him ricocheting off of a wall of stone. Yamcha recovers from this, exclaiming "You little s***..." before Bulma arrives. In the Harmony Gold and BLT Productions dubs, the entire jan-ken-pon sequence was removed, making it appear that Bulma arrives immediately after Yamcha uses the Wolf Fang Fist on Goku. This scene was left intact when it was dubbed by FUNimation. Upon noticing that Master Roshi possesses a Dragon Ball, rather than be obliged to simply give it to Bulma like he does in the first two dubs, the original version and FUNimation dub see Roshi requesting Bulma first show him her breasts. Bulma accepts, but instead has Oolong transform in her exact image (although he first comically transforms into a stocky Bulma roughly his original size). It is then Oolong who teases Roshi at Bulma's dismay, before exposing to him his breasts. To coincide with the removal of this sequence, the paper stuffed in his nostrils (due to nosebleeds which occurred after Oolong showed him his Bulma-breasts) when he is shown just moments before his home is destroyed by the submarine was edited out by BLT Productions. The shuttle ride sequence after leaving Master Roshi's island was shortened in the dubbed version, though it is not clear why. The original scene features Penny's flashback to an unseen conversation with Roshi that her friends will save her land, followed by Bulma reassuring her everything will be okay. This is where the scene ends in the dub, however originally it went on to reveal what Bulma intends to wish Shenron for a boyfriend. In the dubbed version this is not revealed until the film's climax. Another scene removed from the English release actually shows Yamcha's chest being riddled with bullets as Raven shoots him, before being flung against a wall; the only scene remaining that depicts the attack (besides an earlier one closely showing the gun being fired). As Yamcha returns to his feet and begins fighting Raven, rather than notice she is a woman only after her goggles are knocked loose, in the original film he first realizes this when punching her he accidentally fondles her breast. The UK airing of the film on Toonami (which was titled "Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenron") was shown uncut and also featured the original Japanese opening, "Makafushigi Adventure!". Dialogue alterations Bulma's dialogue was also altered in the scene where she is pinned to a mountainside by Goku's Power Pole, after her DynoCap shuttle is destroyed by Raven and she and Goku plummet from the sky. While pinned in the Japanese version, she proclaims she has wet herself, while in the dub she screams that she is "having a crisis." It is still obvious what's happening because she is faintly seen peeing down her thighs. When Oolong confronts Penny, he demands the girl marry him to which Penny responds by shooting him in the face with her slingshot; Oolong then threatens to eat her if she does not comply. In the dub this dialogue was altered to Oolong sarcastically asking "Well, what have we here?" before being shot by Penny, followed by a more assertive threat by Oolong to eat her. When Bulma pulls over and notices Penny and the monster, originally Oolong turns his sights to Bulma and demands now that she marry him, however in the English release his statement after Bulma and Goku arrive was altered to "I can't believe it–a full course meal!" When Goku and Oolong are ambushed by Yamcha, Puar provides a different explanation for Oolong's shapeshifting inferiority in the original film. In this version, she claims that Oolong was kicked out of "transformation kindergarten" for stealing the teacher's panties; this was altered to Oolong having attended "shapeshifting academy until he flunked out," drastically altering its meaning. During the climax of the original film, Penny wishes the blood rubies would disappear from the land, leading Shenron to simultaneously unearth them all. For the dub, her dialogue was altered so that Penny simply wishes for her land to "be peaceful and beautiful again," which Shenron asserts will not be possible with the blood rubies buried underneath it, ensuing in the unearthing sequence. The Harmony Gold version still has Mao-Mao (Oolong) demand girls marry him. In this dub, Roshi instead asks Lena (Bulma) for a kiss in exchange for his Dragon Ball, dialogue afterwards indicates she punched him in response and this is the reason for his bloody nose. Also, the Harmony Gold dub has the name of the blood rubies changed to earth rubies. Characters Heroes *Goku *Bulma *Penny *Oolong Villains *King Gurumes *Bongo *Raven *Yamcha (Turns good at end) *Puar (Turns good at end) Minor *Master Roshi *Turtle Cast Music *OP (Opening Theme): "Makafushigi Adventure!" *ED (Ending Theme): "Romantic Ageru Yo" Trivia *This movie was used as the basis for the live-action Chinese film Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins. *In the original English dub, Bulma was played by two voice actresses. This film was dubbed prior to dubbing the 13 episodes of the BLT Productions dub of the series, and Maggie Blue O'Hara was FUNimation's first choice to play Bulma, but was let go after the movie was completed, and the character was recast with Lalainia Lindbjerg for the series, and since adding in footage from episode 2 was an afterthought, Lindbjerg played Bulma in those scenes. However, O'Hara returned to play Bulma in the Ocean Group dub of Dragon Ball Z after Lindbjerg left. *For many years, this film remained to be the only Dragon Ball property to have been neither released uncut in the US, nor dubbed by FUNimation's in-house voice cast. However, FUNimation finally released it uncut and re-dubbed in the Region 1 DVD on December 28, 2010. It has also been included in a complete set of all four Dragon Ball films released on February 8, 2011.[http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/nnVh4UAXtBwnmuPJlu/browse/item/90030/4/0/0 Complete set of all four Dragon Ball films at rightstuf.com] *The 2010 English dub marks the first time Colleen Clinkenbeard has played as Goku in a speaking role. Gallery References External links *[http://animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1035 Anime News Network - Curse of the Blood Rubies] *[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142251/ Curse of the Blood Rubies] at the Internet Movie Database Category:Films Category:Dragon Ball films